Description

Health and Safety, or Occupational Health and Safety is a very large area to oversee during an ongoing project. Ian offers an overview on what Health and Safety is, who is responsible, regulations, project brief, risk assessments and method statements, the consequences of improper health and safety, hazards and common cause of fatalities, and performance measurement. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Health and Safety on construction sites deals with the physical and psychological wellbeing of workers and other persons whose health is likely to be adversely affected by construction activities.
• Procedures should be put in place so that personnel can quickly report an issue. A culture of responsibility needs to be installed to create a reactive response to any safety problems amongst all personnel. A Health and Safety director should be appointed with direct access to the directors to oversee all aspects of Health and Safety throughout the project.
• The regulations differ in each jurisdiction. In the UK there is The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. 
• The project brief needs to include all the Health and Safety requirements including the Health and Safety Statement. 
• Risk assessment needs to be completed to assess the job that's being undertaken for hazards. Examples should be listed for all tasks to be used when creating awareness when training personnel.
• The consequences of inadequate Health and Safety procedures are injury, disability, loss of wages, loss of life, site closure and time loss,  reputation damage resulting in difficult recruitment or insurance acquisition, low morale and legal implications.
• Typical construction hazards could include chemical substances, tools and machinery, obstructions and trip hazards, storage of materials, spillage, fire and electricity, vermin, dust and debris and fall hazards.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Health and Safety in the construction industry is the responsibility of everyone on the site and even on operational and facilities management, it's still the responsibility of everyone.'

‘If a trip hazard is identified by a worker we should be encouraging that worker to either remove it if it's safe to do so, or to report it so it is properly dealt with.'

‘In terms of construction design and operation there is The Construction and Design Management Regulations 2015, which governs everything associated with a building to make sure that it can be built and operated safely.'

‘There are many standard forms of risk assessments for all sorts of different jobs available, or we need to adapt our own depending on the nature of the work we are undertaking.'

‘Prohibition notices could be put in place. That means the work is effectively shut down because the worker activity is considered too dangerous.'

‘We need to remove as many hazards as possible by having barriers and proper access platforms, scaffolding and all that sort of thing, covering holes and penetrations in floors etc.'

VALUABLE RESOURCES

https://www.ianjrogers.com/

ABOUT THE HOST

Ian Rogers is an entrepreneur running businesses in the Real Estate, Construction and Facilities Management arena. Ian has over 40 years' industry experience, as he was effectively born into construction with his father having his own building company and Ian spending time working on sites from the age of 11!. As a result Ian has seen the industry from a trades person perspective, as a chartered quantity surveyor working on large commercial projects, as a project manager and then working on structured project finance through PFI/PPP deals. This has given Ian a unique whole life approach to any project by considering the end game at the beginning.

CONTACT METHOD

https://www.ianjrogers.com/

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